mr. kudlow: good question. i have known president trump for many years, not intimately, but probably 20 years. interviewed him many times on various tv and radio shows. helped him with his campaign on tax cuts and the economy. we talked about coming in at different points. i was still working as a commentator for cnbc and my radio show, just finished the book. i wasn't really in any rush to jump in. i did this, as you know, over 35 years ago, i was one of the omb deputies for economics. this was a more senior position. then he called me in a march. i was coming back from connecticut. on a sunday afternoon, i was coming back from playing tennis. the phone rings and it's the situation room. we talked for about 35-40 minutes. i pulled over on the side of the road. he said -- we didn't really get to it. i thought he was going to yell at me, because he established steel tariffs, which i did not approve of. i had written an op-ed opposing his national security steel tariffs. i thought he was calling to balk me out. h

mr. kudlow: that's above my pay grade. reporter: gdp projections for the next quarter? mr. kudlow: the last thing i saw was 4.6 q3, is that right? we had some terrific business cap investment numbers come out, which is really the heart of it. because if they are investing because we have lower tax rates and more incentives and a 100% easierng and repatriation, all that seems to be panning out. so that gives you the productivity, that gives you the jobs, that gives you the real wages. i just think you are saying that whole curve go up and it's great. i can't vouch for the atlanta fed. we would be thrilled with 3% 4.6%.but they are talking i don't want to critique the atlanta fed but it just shows you. of economicsensus forecasting has moved up. it may very, but it has moved up. i think that's great. reporter: for the republicans in the midterms, it seems like the q2 numbers are coming up to give them an advantage? months of three full media messaging off the last quarter's numbers. we are getting a q3 preliminary for the last week of october. but we didn't invent the deadline

mr. kudlow right now? guest: well, how crazy about what -- how right is he about what? mr. ow is a friend of mine. before he took the job, i warned him, larry, you are going to go into a situation. you know the value of trade, and you are going to put yourself in a situation in which the president is going to make you get up and defend some things you don't like. i think he's inching his way closer into that space. i think he's right that the chinese economy has not grown at the 8% to 9% rates it did at a long time. their growth has slowed down to, let's say, 6%. if people are going to convince themselves that that means this is a good idea, they are deeply mistaken. if we get a trade war between the two largest economies of the world that spirals out of control, it will mean a recession for both of us. that is why they say there is no winner in a trade war. if they are trying to negotiate something, it would help if we had some discussions going on with china. just publicly saying we are going to attack them when you know perfectly well they can devalue their currency, and

mr. kudlow said, he is not backing off at all.line with the europeans with, mexico, canada, et cetera, et cetera. you approve of that? is that the way to get a trade deal, a hard-line? >> my coauthor, larry kudlow knows what he is talking about. if the means is threatening tariffs and it works of course that policy should be pursued. and if that worked with mexico and canada and the eu, that's why i'm saying there is no bar to start to talk about 5% growth. that would be a new thing in experience in the 21st century. stuart: can we get it? can you get lower tariff barriers or no tariffs at all? is that a realistic proposition? >> given that low tariffs and no tariffs benefit everybody, in the high tariffs benefit the few, it is in the general interest for their to be low tariffs. so i would be very, i would expect we would, yes, have good reason to believe that we can get lower, no tariffs across the board. stuart: let me go back aways, back to the election of 2016. on election night we had several prominent economists saying look

mr. kudlow. >> yes two things were positive the first was the announcement between the eu and japan that tariffs would be reduced for car parts, cars. and going the other way, wine and cheese then an important statement two weeks ago after the meeting between trump and mr. juncker, that the eu and u.s. would be renegotiating the tar rif iffs had already been imposed and they would look at engaging on topics like the wto, energy. we think that will be positive we think that agreement will ultimately be followed through and most importantly it's likely to result in the out toe taria not being imposed by the u.s that would be positive for european economies and markets which have been held back. >> for those looking to invest in specific european sectors with exposure to these trade spats. it strikes me how quickly things can turn for the worse and how long it takes for the long-term changes to be enacted. because these negotiations tend to take time does it seem to you that mr. trump will end up getting what he wants >> we think his trump administration discussions will be focused increasi

mr. kudlow: yes, sir. appreciate it. high, everybody. mediai am looking at the and watching various tv and other outlets talk about stuff that baffles me. here's the key point i made yesterday, i will make it to you today. by far, the biggest single event political or otherwise, this thatis an economic boom most people thought would be impossible. not a rise, not a blip, a genuine economic boom. everybody wrote us off going back to the campaign. last year and now this year. the numbers just keep coming in, which is one of the reasons i tried to get the president on this. we have 3.1% gdp in the first half of the year. 4.1 in the second quarter. the point, anybody who does political forecasting using the economy always focuses on a number of real disposable income. think of it as after-tax pay. take-home pay. that measure is growing at 3.1% the last 12 months. when we came to office, it was less than 1% on a 12 month basis. arele say only a few benefiting. not true. this is the entire economy. everybody's wage and salary is growing. 3% is

mr. kudlow talks about is being ignored. what do you make of it?t that's absolutely spot-on. you can't fight, again, you can't fight momentmeum and you can't fight capital. it's a growth industry in and of itself. if you look around the country, as i did recently, i saw growth, i saw trucks moving, fully loaded trains, consumers buying things, stores, distribution centers, all of which are indicative of money on the move and profits on the make. connell: right. todd, it is hard to deny the economy is strong, but i notice in your first few comments, you seem to say well, maybe there's some warning signs that it won't be strong forever. is your view a little bit less bullish than keith and so many others we have heard from? >> yeah, i think if we look at the last time we had consumer confidence this high, what happened? the markets fell apart. when complacency takes over and we get so confident and overconfident, usually that leads to a market that's probably ready to sell off. again, i believe in the markets long term that they go up 8% year over ye

mr. kudlow saying with mexico, he was happy that mexico got a win and the u.s. a win, because what we often hear from this administration is i win, you lose. really, trade deals are about mutually beneficial wins. hopefully we can get there. i think it's possible this week. i really do. kristina: you are quite optimistic. we have a lot of canadian media now saying no, this isn't necessarily a good deal, we don't need to jump the gun. we can go through the parliamentary process in canada. i want to bring it back to the united states and congress. do you think that congress is going to push back given the many pro-trade, free trade republicans, the fact they have 90 days, they initially said they wanted a trilateral agreement. now these are discussions about bilateral agreements. do you think there's going to be a lot of pushback in congress? >> well, i think the pushback if it comes would be against a bilateral deal with mexico only. what we are seeing from congressional leadership, from chairman brady to chairman hatch and a lot of people in between, it's really

mr. kudlow's conversation today if there's impact on specifics for example health care, energy, there stillts of the market to play at heavily discounted valuations. >> one, do you believe it, and two if it's true, is that good news or could it be bad news for the u.s. market? >> it depends on which economic data you're looking at on the macro level, the industrial production numbers have been largely sideways, gdp numbers have been largely sideways there's two different dynamics with china right now one is a macro dynamic and one is micro from a macro they're trying to switch i would argue, yes, their health care is interesting, high growth is interesting in china. the chinese stock market is trading on a very different dynamic than i think the economy here is i think the market is over sold. >> you mentioned sectors you would sell on based where the market is going. >> the banking sector, areas where there's too much capacity. >> this is china you're talking about. >> yeah, this is in china we're talking about. but if you look at sect shz where continued investment is going to come not on

mr. kudlow have basically soldiers off to the your soul to the devil for donald trump.uest: i was also privilege to work -- privileged to worker -- to work for ronald reagan. -- aember it's very very vividly. reagan came along with his policies of cutting taxes, reducing regulation and as reagan used to say, reaganomics is not the solution, government .s the problem i do not buy the argument that it did not work, it created an incredible recovery. reagan was slightly reelected with 49 states so the american people loved what reagan did for the american economy. lot of what donald trump has done is out of the pages of reagan's policies. different than reaganomics. trump is more of a populist but they both wanted the american economy to expand and boy, has it. host: the president has been critical of the chair jerome powell because he says he doesn't like the interest rates. is that appropriate? guest: there is a big debate about that. the president has the right to speak out about said policy. the president is the ceo of our national economy and why shouldn't he be able

kudlow: ilow -- mr. have been a believer under that right policy, we can grow the american economy at least at its historic rate, which, since world war ii, for more or less 1950 to 2000 and we grew at 3 1/2% a year after inflation, and i do not see why we cannot replicate that. >> friday at 9:15 eastern on c-span, www.c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. earlier today a group of her public and senators spoke in the ol about brett kavanaugh's supreme court nomination. this is about 25 minutes. >> double stacked in the. we are in the process. good morning, everyone. have some brief comments and we will allow time for questions. i want to thank my colleagues, hatch,n hatch, chairman chairman grassley come and senator lee for joining us. senator cornyn will join us in a few moments. tois under -- important understand process that we will go through the next several weeks leading to the confirmation hearings to give you a representation of the school of the documentation. in the past them 17

mr. kudlow is saying susan is right.are up 36 points in dow industrials, 2 or 3 minutes up 37 points. now, the cbs conference call, they were on the call after reported profits that guy there, les moonves on the call, hey, you analysts, do not ask him any questions about the sexual harassments against him, they complied, no questions, bottom line david deets the analysts are not doing their job. >> nothing new to that, they are afraid of not having access. that's why i'm independent adviser. you've given my line today. >> investors count on the analysts, they keep trying to prove their credibility and they just blew that opportunity. they could -- they could have asked the hard questions and proved their credibility. stuart: what do you say, susan? >> i was disappointed, as journalist ifs we wouldn't ask the hard questions we would be criticized, couldn't they ask about succession planning which i imagine has an impact on where cbs goes. stuart: analysts should not be in bed with the company and should not -- ashley: but

mr. kudlow. it brings your business up to speed, doing more with systems you have in place.pps to life and run them within your data center. it is... the ibm cloud private. the cloud that's built for all your apps. ai ready. secure to the core. the ibm cloud is the cloud for smarter business. you mighyour joints...ng for your heart... or your digestion... so why wouldn't you take something for the most important part of you... your brain. with an ingredient originally discovered in jellyfish, prevagen has been shown in clinical trials to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome to at&t innovations where we give you more for you thing. and here's where we shrink the biggest names in entertainment so we can fit them into our unlimited wireless plan. who's first? no. this isn't permanent, right? ask him. [terry squeals.] get unlimited data, live tv, and your choice of an extra on us. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit att.com >>> welcome back to "squawk box." we've been watching the futures this morning. started out in the green, move

mr. kudlow: under the right policies which provided economic opportunity and freedom and incentives, we cane american economy at least at its historic rate, which since world less 1952om more or the year 2000, we grew at 3.5% a year after inflation. i see no reason why we can't replicate that with proper policies. announcer: larry kudlow, friday night at 9:15 eastern on c-span, www.c-span.org, or the free c-span radio app. there are lots of people who feel like i don't love my kid to read stories that are sad, disturbing, downbeat, whatever. right? that is not a totally illegitimate thing to say, i want to choose as a parent when my kid understands stuff that might bring them grief. but there's also a certain point beyond which that is like, well, they are 14 now. when are you going to introduce them to the idea that not everything is perfect outside your all-white suburb? all of those factors i think swirled together to create the perfect comes to fire -- perfect dumpster fire of mass banning of books by marginalized people. live sunday at noon eastern, discussing "walk away." his other bo

kudlow: ilow -- mr. have been a believer under that right policy, we can grow the american economy at least at its historic rate, which, since world war ii, for more or less 1950 to 2000 and we grew at 3 1/2% a year after inflation, and i do not see why we cannot replicate that. >> friday at 9:15 eastern on c-span, www.c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. earlier today a group of her public and senators spoke in the capit

mrs. conference, trump's economic adviser larry kudlow admits he hosted a prominent white nationalists publisher at his home. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president donald trump lashed out against his former fixer and personal attorney michael: wednesday, one day after cohen pleaded guilty to a cruel charges of including to campaign finance violations that appeared to book a trump as an unindicted co-conspirators are. cohen admitted in court tuesday he arranged to illegally count money to two women, adult some star and a playboy model, to keep them from speaking during the 2016 campaign about their alleged affairs with donald trump. cohen indicated trump directed the payments which were made for the purpose of influencing the election. on wednesday, trump fired back tweeting -- amy: speaking in an interview with ainsley heart of fox and friends that air this month, trump falsely stated payments were not a violation of campaign finance laws. pres. trump: later on i knew. you have to understand, what he did

mr. the team around him, kudlow and others, do they have a voice to staunch his intentions, whether theyhn: the have a voice. we do have a president who at thingsan lash out or say . there are competing voices in all of this. the biggest area is in trade where you've got navarro on one side who is very protectionist and larry kudlow is a free market guy. lot, chinahere are a is not a good actor on tariffs and free trade. the president is taking actions against that. francine: for the moment, the president and his administration think they are winning the trade war. will china make them pay for it? will they make them pay for close to the midterm elections. john: nobody wins in a trade war. i think one of the almost universal compositions among are the trades war's and tariffs, it's not that is ank president trump protectionist, it's that he thinks tariffs because china has a larger exports to the us versus exports to china has more to lose. by taking action and bringing trying toe table, make progress in the same way that we had the start of a dialogue with the eu. it's not just the u.s.

does someone like larry kudlow have to sit down mr. trump and ? point? chris: good luck there. it's not just rates driven. the president does like a fight. morning in out this response to the head of the press conference today. play,ot just rates in that is a powerful chart. it's also politics. where were we when the president tweeted on friday? let's see what happens if we get another tweet this morning potentially. nejra: if we get further emerging markets fallout, could that push president trump to back off? those i would not use terms for him ever. , he ist the personality a political brawler, a businessman, he has done a lot of negotiations. he sued a lot of people. he is litigious. i don't see him backing off. i don't know where this is going to end. i wish we could get some movement on the american pastor and see what happens. this is very much a political story in addition to an interest rates story. tom: thank you so much. coverageontinue with from their today as well. let's look at foreign-exchange right now. it will be interesting what

mr. brennan, but having said that, i'm not sure that this is a good use of the president's time. you saw at the beginning of your program that larry kudlowng about the biggest story of this year which was the economic recovery and 82 days after the election we are talking about how the president affectionately revokes the security clearance of john brennan for saying ugly things and he replies with an op-ed in "the new york times," not a constructive day for advancing the agenda. >> dana: it was interesting, you might think he said he does not need to say anything more about it, he had a cabinet meeting and a chance to talk to the press. he did not say anything about it. he might be moving on already. i didn't want to bring up this, andrew said that america was never that great. trying to backtrack. he is a 2020 hopeful. his republican opponent mike molinaro said this. as a kid who grew up on food stamps with a single hardworking mom, don't tell me america is not a great country. that kid with patches and his wranglers was the youngest mayor in america, and republican governor of the state of new york today. that did not happen because i

mr. musk's $420 figure. we are joined from san francisco by bloomberg's tesla reporter, dan hall. all the folks we have been talking to, including david kudlow, this is going to be quite a big up challenge to get is actually done. >> it's really interesting. in the pastked about wanting to take tesla private. it is not a surprise for people covering him that he has been frustrated with the challenges of being a public company ceo. he said he's trying to forge a path forward that would allow everyone to focus on the long-term future, but where the financing is coming from, how he gets this through, the valuation he wants, what happens to tesla's debt, it is not at all a done deal yet. ramy: he said it is all about creating the environment for tesla to "operate best." is this the better path for tesla to grow out of the watchful eye of investors? dana: i think it is surprising. tesla is still a high-growth company that has a lot of funding needs. they want to build the factory in shanghai, make a lot of products, so they will need an enormous amount of financing. musk said financing is secure, but there was no details about what he means by th

mr. trump step back from the suicide of nafta withdrawal on the public evidence so far this new deal is worse. nonetheless, the markets took off and we're going to have larry kudlowhe director of national economic concerns with us live at 8:30 to talk a little bit about this. >> katie: we will see where it goes. steve: it's one of those things where the president of the united states, donald trump, was able to get something done that others have said they were going to fix. for instance, remember when barack obama said he would fix nafta. >> scrap nafta, senator obama or fix it. >> i would immediately call the president of mexico and the president of canada to try to amend nafta because i think that we can get labor agreements in that agreement right now. and it should reflect the basic principle that our trade agreements should not just be good for wall street, it should alsoable good for main street. steve: sounds good. brian: i wonder what happened to that guy who asked those questions. that was president obama he never was able to accomplish it as far as i know, he was not able to tackle it. many people thought well, the success is going to start with canada.